Comedian and Seven Sharp reporter Ben Hurley meets a cricket fan whose love of the game has transformed his life and career.
Stand-up comedy is a lot about adrenaline. It's a lot of people's number one fear, meaning you need that hormone coursing through your heart to even step to the mic.
I've done, roughly, 5000 stand-up gigs in my life but none of them compares to the adrenaline I felt when I nicked out Shane Burgess off the last ball of the day in his backyard to win an intense game of backyard cricket in 1994. I say this with precisely zero hyperbole.
There are many forms of cricket: Test, One Day, T20s, Twilight, Indoor, beach and office. However, I believe the pinnacle of the game is Backyard. Your rules, your conditions, your friends, your rivalries. It's the perfect form because you've perfected it.
I thought I was passionate about backyard cricket until, two years ago, when I met Sam Musty. On the surface, a relatively typical Hamilton teenager but one with an intense motivation to take backyard cricket to a higher level.
During COVID lockdown he transformed his parents' suburban Hamilton backyard into an arena worthy of Test status. Aptly named the MCG (Musty Cricket Ground), Musty and his mates worked tirelessly to prepare a pitch, pavilion and outfield that Sir Richard Hadlee himself would not have looked out of place on.
Ok, so maybe a little touch of hyperbole there.
'Improve on perfection'
Upon my discovery of Musty, I decided to profile this kindred spirit for Seven Sharp. I used my contacts in the game to employ the services of the charismatic groundskeeper of Hamilton's actual Test cricket ground, Karl Johnson, to come and "pimp" the MCG.
Musty was certainly grateful but also remarked, "Can you improve on perfection?"
Two years on, I caught up again with Musty. This time not at the Backyard but at Hamilton Golf Club. It turns out his love for turf has propelled him into an adjacent career — he's two years into an apprenticeship to become a groundskeeper.
The sport might be different and the tools might be higher specced but the intent is definitely comparable.
"Are there any transferable skills from the backyard?" I asked Musty. "Probably just the precision," he said.
As for the Musty Cricket Ground, not only is it still operational but there have been improvements.
It was obvious immediately that Musty's new skills had been employed and the oval looked an absolute picture. Grant Saunders, Musty's boss at the golf course, quietly informed me that equipment had been "borrowed" and taken home to prepare for our cameras.
To surprise Musty, once again I called in a favour. Black Cap, international spin bowling superstar and fellow Hamiltonian, Mitchell Santner honourably rolled up to check out Hamilton's other international quality cricket ground.
I asked Santner if he had anything like this to play on growing up. "Not even close," he said.
Musty had a bat. He faced an over from Santner that would cost an Indian Premier League team a few thousand dollars a ball.
Once again, I felt the vigour caused only by the perfect form of this 500-year-old game. I slipped into wicketkeeper as Santner and Musty battled out an intense but predominantly jovial six balls. Santner even fired in a quicker one at the end, payback perhaps for Musty's cheeky reverse sweep into the fence for four the ball before.
I guess it doesn't matter how many games of top-class cricket you've played, the adrenaline of the backyard never really leaves you.
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